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Sunday, August 9, 2015

Warrior Dash Ohio II 2015 Recap

Photos by OHventures

Another year, another Warrior Dash! After 5 years of muddy mayhem at one of the most popular obstacle running series in the world, I am thinking that Warrior Dash Day should be a national (or international) holiday! While some running events have been fizzling out, the Warrior Dash keeps gaining more momentum and more popularity as time progresses!

As with all years in the past (2011, 2012, 2013, and2014) in which we have run and reviewed the Warrior Dash you never know what you're going to get. They are always changing it up, adding different obstacles and altering the course, tweaking it to make the elements harsher and more challenging. This is why me and my friends & family keep coming back for more.

(For those of you who do not know what the Warrior Dash is - get with the program by reading our "What Is Warrior Dash?" blog)

Again, Warrior Dash Ohio II (named as such because another Warrior Dash takes place in Logan, Ohio earlier in the year) took place at Clay's Park Resort in North Lawrence in Stark County. It was on Saturday, August 8, and my brother and I were running in the 9:00 AM heat! Our course was "moderately hilly" at 3.2 miles with 14 obstacles.

List of Obstacles

1. Great Warrior Wall: Scaling a 14-foot wall caked in the slick mud of the Battleground.

2. Alcatraz: Climb/swim across cargo nets that are halfway submerged in a muddy lake

3. Plunge:Crawl up a cargo net and scale back down a 16-foot sheet of plywood

4. Trenches: Stay low and crawl quickly through the dirt and under logs

5. Chaotic Cargo: Climb up and over the tangled cargo nets

6. Dead Man's Drop: Scale up a merciless wall 20 feet in the air, straddle the ledge, and slide down to hit the ground running

7. Giant Cliffhanger With the help of a rope, clamber up and repel back down a 30-foot pyramid.

8. Mud Mounds: Literally a giant mud pit you slid into from about 10-12 feet above ground. Then, you claw your way out of the mud pit, which was nearly impossible to do without the help of others around you!

9. Pipeline: New this year, these were a series of cylindrical (pipe-like) cargo nets that you had to shimmy through at an incline. Many seemed to have a TON of trouble with this, but my brother came up with a great solution to crawl on your back rather than on your hands and knees. Doing that was tons easier than the traditional method!

10. High Tension: Cross a 30-foot slackline hovering over a water pit (this one was tough for shorter people like myself - and especially even shorter people like my sister-in-law who couldn't even reach the cargo nets and had to fall in!).

11. Two X Fall: A series of balance beams that go up, down, and across while being squirted with water.

12. Goliath: This is the largest obstacle, starting with a rope climb, then a two-story balance beam before making a splash at the bottom of a 30-foot-high slide.

13. Warrior Roast: Leap over the warrior fires
14. Muddy Mayhem: Scramble under the barbed wire and through the mud as you near the finish line

When all was said and done, my group felt that this year's run was not as difficult as previous years. A few things can be factors in that. One factor is that this is the 2nd year the race itself was untimed, and also the 1st year that none of us really were trying to be competitive. Another reason is because we are getting stronger each year!

Regardless how the course and the obstacles were, the real fun is the finish line! It's always a great time redeeming our free Shock Top beers, listening to the live music and meeting up with other friends who were running the event! The sun was caking in the muddiness, and it was getting more and more crowded, so the time we spent at the after party only lasted a couple of hours.

Pictured: Me, Ryan, Stacey, Marc, and Erik - Stark County Mudders!

Just like Christmas, New Years, or any other holiday, I always hate it when "Warrior Dash Day" comes to an end. The excitement leading up to it, the adrenaline pumping through your veins during it, and the celebrations afterwards is all why I keep coming back for more. Now if only I could get a day off work for this...